After three years of rising ratings, Coronation Street fell to an average of 14.5 million viewers, shedding nearly 1.4 million of 1981's audience in the largest single-year-drop up to that point. Every month saw a fall from the same month the year before - the first time this had occurred - with drops ranging from 0.1m in April to 2.3m in June. The highest-rated episode was Episode 2167 on 6th January, with 18.95 million viewers, the lowest peak since 1974. This was the lowest-rated year of the 1980s, and the lowest up to that point excepting 1960 and 1961 when Coronation Street wasn't fully networked.

These trends are not reflected in the programme's chart positions. 36 episodes reached number one, an increase of 4 from 1981 and the most yet outside the 1962-1965 peak, and only one episode charted outside the top 20 (Episode 2227 on 4th August, which was also the lowest-rated episode of the year).